Manufacturing Emissions

At Coca-Cola, we are committed to making changes in our operations to reduce our climate impact. One of the ways we’re working toward this commitment is striving to reduce emissions from our manufacturing processes—an area where we’ve realized progress but also faced obstacles.

In 2008, Coca-Cola committed to two emissions reduction targets: 1) grow the business, not the carbon system-wide and 2) a 5 percent absolute reduction in developed countries. The emissions targets apply to manufacturing operations and had an initial target date of 2015 compared to a baseline year of 2004.

We continue to strive toward our goal of “grow the business, not the carbon,” yet we are off track and estimate our global manufacturing emissions to stand between 10 - 15 percent higher than our 2004 baseline.. Contributing factors include volume growth outpacing emission ratio improvements and insourcing of external manufacturing processes.

Our global manufacturing emissions in 2016 were an estimated 5.45 million metric tons, compared to 5.58 million metric tons in 2015. While we expect some of this change from minor methodological and process changes internally, we expect our emissions reduction activities at manufacturing facilities contributed approximately 110,000 metric tons of reduction. We remain focused on reductions and improving our energy efficiency.

In 2016, the Coca-Cola system achieved a 2 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2015, a 24 percent improvement compared to the 2004 baseline. Using energy more efficiently enables us to reduce our carbon footprint, conserve natural resources and contain costs.

Coca-Cola achieved our “5 percent reduction in developed countries” goal by 2015, and in 2016, we continued to improve to 20% below the 2004 baseline by the end of the year.. We continue to work with our bottling partners on the “Top 10 Energy Saving Challenge.” This program equips bottling partners with low-risk/high-return energy-saving practices and enables them to compare performance with other bottling partners across the system.

The total amount of energy consumed by manufacturing sites across our system has grown as our business has grown—from 54.4 billion megajoules in 2004 to 62.5 billion megajoules in 2015. We remain focused on reductions and importantly, improving our energy efficiency. In 2015, the Coca-Cola system achieved a 2 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2014, a 23 percent improvement compared to the 2004 baseline.

Advancing Our Renewable Energy Program

Our renewable energy program is an area we’re working to advance. We created a Clean Energy Toolkit to help local teams make informed decisions on potential investments, and we have been working locally in several markets to embrace renewable energy initiatives. At end of 2016, we had 81 operational renewable energy projects in 25 countries and are actively pursuing 50 additional projects. Of the projects, quantitatively the majority is solar at 43 percent; however, while representing only 7 percent of projects, wind produces the highest total renewable energy capacity at 37 percent. Here are a few examples:

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) committed to sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. In 2016, 75 percent of CCEP’s purchased electricity came from renewable sources, and approximately 42 percent of the energy used in its manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites came from renewable or low-carbon energy sources.

Coca-Cola FEMSA in Mexico aims for 85 percent renewable electricity for manufacturing by 2020; achieved 46 percent by the end of 2016.

Hindustan Coca-Cola Bottling (HCCBPL) in India has a renewable energy goal of 40 percent by 2020; achieved 39 percent by end of 2016.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has committed to take 40 percent of their total energy use from renewable and clean energy sources by 2020; achieved 27 percent by end of 2016.

This work is tracked and reported transparently within our overarching goal of reducing the carbon footprint of the “drink in your hand” by 25 percent by 2020.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- or no-sugar options to help people moderate their consumption of added sugar. In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our leading brands around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we’re serious about making positive contributions to the world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and continuing to introduce new ones with added benefits. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world.

The fairlife® brand is owned by fairlife, LLC, our joint venture with Select Milk Producers, Inc., and fairlife’s products are distributed by our Company and certain of our bottling partners.